ONLY ON 3: Workers say child ghost may haunt WWAY

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Much of Wilmington’s haunted history has been told again and again. Tonight, though, we have a ghost story you likely have never heard.

This spirit does not lurk in a cemetery or prowl the battleship. This one haunts our station here on North Front Street.

WWAY’s Ramon Herrera has had his own experience with this apparent ghost. This weekend a group of paranormal researchers joined Ramon for an overnight investigation to see if there really is something inside our building.

Ramon’s run-in with this apparent ghost happened last fall. He was filling in as the morning anchor. One the morning anchor duties is to record a one-minute radio news spot. One morning as Ramon finished and left the audio booth off the studio, he heard what sounded like a little girl laugh.

“I ignored it, but the following morning I heard it again,” Ramon said. “I asked people around me if they heard it, but nothing.”

Ramon’s story made some of our staff at WWAY curious. A few weeks later, one of our master control operators, John Fulcher, decided to bring a camera to work to see if he could catch something on tape.

After several minutes of snooping around in the attic, John called it quits and walked down the stairs. After reviewing the recording later, he realized that he may have caught something, a voice, that sounds like a little girl saying, “Good bye.”

With this ghostly message and Ramon’s experience, we thought it would be interesting to invite some paranormal investigators this Halloween weekend. For nearly four hours he tagged along with the Research: Paranormal group as they investigated the many rooms inside WWAY.

They called out to spirits, set up cameras and sat in the dark listening for anything unusual.

“You can walk into a place and have activity start right away,” Research: Paranormal’s Jason Cianciola said. “Some places you’ll find nothing at all. Some places you’ll find nothing at all and go back and find a lot of evidence on review.”

For this investigation, they did not feel or hear anything direct. The researchers, though, worked away; collecting information with numerous tools and devices

For many, the voice captured in the recording last year may be proof enough, but these experienced paranormal investigators have their doubts.

“When you played the video for me, there’s definitely what sounded like a very succinct sound at the end,” William Redd said. “The more you listen to it though the less it actually sounds like that.”

And so the debate will go on. Like all good ghost stories, there will always be those who believe and those who doubt. It all helps create another chapter in the Port City’s haunted history.

The Research: Paranormal crew is analyzing their evidence from the investigation. We’ll let you know if they find anything.

Ramon is not the only person who believes our building is haunted. A former janitor also heard a little girl’s voice and believes he was victim of a few childlike pranks he couldn’t explain while working alone early in the morning.